Wireless communication networks are becoming increasingly common for interconnecting many types of electronic devices. Computer systems of all sizes, personal digital assistants, input/output devices, entertainment system components and other types of home appliances, are all examples of client station devices that are candidates for interconnection using a wireless communication network. Various specific wireless communication protocols have been developed. Examples of existing wireless communication protocols may be found in the family of standards for wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) known as IEEE 802.11, including the 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g wireless communication standards.
Generally, wireless networks include some number of access devices (referred to herein as “access points”) that provide network access to some number of wireless client devices (referred to herein as “stations”). For example, an access point in a wireless network may be connected to a wired communication network, and client stations using the wireless network are provided wireless access to the wired network through the access point.
Existing network management systems are deficient in how they represent the throughput available between wireless network devices. Information describing available throughput between devices is important for a network manager to easily access, in order to determine how well the managed network is operating, or to determine the best placement of devices within the network. Moreover, existing systems are also deficient in terms of representing channel selection between wireless network devices, which is also important to a network manager.
For the above reasons, it would be desirable to have a new system for managing a wireless communication network that provided graphical representations of associations between wireless network devices that indicate the available throughput between the devices, as well as the channel selection between the devices.